Barry Barnes, a six-year assistant coach with the men’s basketball team at Long Beach City College and a former Vikings player, has been hired as LBCC’s new head coach.

Barnes, 45, takes over from Gary Anderson, who resigned last week after 18 years as head coach and over 30 years within the program.

“I’m excited,” Barnes said Saturday. “I’ve been in a daze the last couple days. … I played there (1982-1984), I’m from the Long Beach area (Lakewood High graduate, 1982). … It seems like I just got through playing there and now I’m the coach.”

Barnes takes over a team that went 15-15 last season, finished second in the South Coast Conference South Division and reached the postseason for the fifth consecutive season. He said his biggest challenge will be keeping Long Beach-area players who have not qualified to play at four-year universities home to play for the Vikings.

“We go to tournaments and I see a lot of our local kids at other schools,” he said.

Barnes was one of several candidates for the job. Men’s athletic director Larry Reisbig didn’t know the exact number but said he’d received “a lot of phone calls.”

“Being with the program, doing a good job as an assistant, we think he’s more than capable to meet the challenge,” Reisbig said. “When it all shook out, Barry was, in our opinion, the most qualified.”

After graduating from Lakewood High in 1982 as an All-Moore League and All-CIF Southern Section player, Barnes played at Long Beach City for two seasons.

He then transferred to Biola University, where he was an NAIA second-team All-American as a junior.

He later served as head junior varsity coach and varsity assistant coach at Lakewood High before serving as an assistant coach at Cal State Dominguez Hills from 2000 to 2004. In 2002, Barnes earned his Bachelor’s degree in physical education from CSDH and is currently working on his Master’s degree in kinesiology.

Anderson, who said last week he was stepping down to give someone new a chance, will stay on as a faculty member at LBCC and serve as Barnes’ assistant.

“(Anderson) will be there for me,” Barnes said. “He wants the program to be mine … but he’ll be there to assist me if I need anything.

“(I learned) to be tough (from Anderson),” Barnes added, “to keep the game simple, to stick with the things you believe in.”